


In Our Family Portrait We Look Pretty Happy

by Snow



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Family Drama, Gen, Homophobic Language, Outing, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-06
Updated: 2010-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-12 11:29:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In all honesty, it's a miracle that Mycroft has made it to twenty-three without being out to his family.  It's partly a result of not spending much time at all at home in the last ten years and partly a result of the fact that Mycroft hadn't been out to anyone else either.</p><p>Now he's been home for Christmas for all of five minutes and Sherlock has already deduced from the way Mycroft fiddled with his phone in the entry way that he has a boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Our Family Portrait We Look Pretty Happy

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the lovely calicokat. Who ate up some extraneous words so you don't have to read them.

In all honesty, it's a miracle that Mycroft has made it to twenty-three without being out to his family. It's partly a result of not spending much time at all at home in the last ten years and partly a result of the fact that Mycroft hadn't been out to anyone else either.

Now he's been home for Christmas for all of five minutes and Sherlock has already deduced from the way Mycroft fiddled with his phone in the entry way that he has a boyfriend.

Mycroft shoots his younger brother an annoyed look. "You can't tell."

"Why not? Can't bear to do anything that might upset our father? You can't be a perfect younger version of him forever." At sixteen Sherlock is arrogantly self-righteous and sure that the truth won't hurt anyone who doesn't have it coming.

Mycroft considers the list of outstanding childhood arguments before deciding that it's likely Sherlock thinks he's doing the right thing. "I'd actually figured that out on my own." Mycroft had spent rather a lot of time trying, but it hadn't worked out well for either himself or the girls he'd try to love.

"He doesn't deserve you pretending for him."

Mycroft frowns. "I'm capable of making my own decisions."

Sherlock tilts his head. "And I'm capable of undermining them."

"I really wish you wouldn't." It's hard to pretend that this conversation doesn't matter to him, but staying calmly rational is the only way to try to convince Sherlock of anything.

" _I_ really wish you would be capable of doing this by yourself."

"I am capable. I would simply rather not." Mycroft wants to tell Sherlock that he doesn't have the right to do this, but he doubts that matters to Sherlock. Besides, there's a part of Mycroft that wants to believe Sherlock: that the end result of everyone knowing the truth will be something other than a complete disaster. It's possible that Sherlock and Mycroft's definitions of complete disaster differ more than a little. Mycroft somehow doubts Sherlock would particularly _mind_ being disinherited, at least not in the abstract.

Sherlock rolls his eyes. "No, you're much too wedded to the status quo. You know that I'm going to take the opportunity to hurt him, even if it means using you to do it."

"Yes, the fact that you're _self-aware_ makes it all so much better." Mycroft rubs his eyes. "Do what you want, you always do. Just don't expect me to be happy about it."

That's the end of that conversation. Sherlock retreats to his room until dinner and Mycroft goes to help Mummy in the kitchen. He doesn't mention to her the fact that he's gay, though he thinks he probably should. She's likely to be more understanding than his father and Mycroft could use her reasonableness on his side. His talk with Sherlock took more out of him than he'd expected, and for now Mycroft wants to pretend that his first dinner back will go as smoothly as last year's did.

* * *

"I'm very disappointed in you."

Mycroft nods at his father's words. He hadn't been expecting anything else.

"Right," Sherlock snaps. "Because Mycroft is attracted to men _just to spite_ you. _That_ makes sense. Not." Mycroft doesn't know why Sherlock feels the need to put on this impassioned defence of him. It's possible he's upset over having been wrong about how homophobic their father is. Whatever his reasons, it's very clear that this isn't actually going to help.

"I have expectations of behaviour that I might expect _you_ to ignore, Sherlock, but Mycroft should know better."

Yes, his father's voice, his opinions, his inability to consider anyone else's opinion or needs, do grate on Mycroft's nerves, obviously, but Mycroft knows how to grit his teeth and bear it. He thinks he could have managed to sound just apologetic enough about this to prevent it from escalating too much, if he'd had that option. Mycroft is about to butt in with _something_ more reasoned, maybe the verbal equivalent to rolling over and playing dead - the only strategy he'd ever find to work with his father - when Sherlock speaks again.

" _Mycroft_ hardly has a personality at all anymore, he's been trying so hard to submerge it into his desire to be who you want him to be."

His father is shooting Mycroft yet another pained look, like he put Sherlock up to this, which he most certainly did not. Mycroft would rather not be accused of lacking a personality, or be having this argument at all. "Maybe he should try a little harder," his father roars.

Mycroft glances away from the table, twisting to stare at the portrait of his great-grandfather that hangs on the wall behind his seat.

"Leighton," Mummy says. Mycroft almost turns back around to look at her, but he can't bear her disappointment as well. "For God's sake, be reasonable!"

Mycroft can feel his father's gaze turning to the back of his head, and Mycroft is grateful that the man can't see the tears threatening to spill from Mycroft's eyes.

"Yes, consider the family history, _boy_. Consider the family name. You don't deserve the advantages it's given you."

Mycroft can hear Mummy's quiet gasp, the dull thud when Sherlock kicks the leg of the table. If Mycroft were fifteen years younger, he would be able to run from the table and hide in his room until everyone calmed down. As it is he takes another thirty seconds to smooth his face into something that might pass for collected if no one looks too closely and turns back around. "Are you threatening to have me fired, Father?" he asks.

"I don't make threats: you will be fired."

"Leighton, kitchen, now," snaps Mummy, standing up. With a lingering grimace at Mycroft, his father follows her out.

Mycroft shoots Sherlock his most annoyed look. "What the hell," he hisses under the sounds of Mummy's shouting drifting from the kitchen.

Sherlock nonchalantly leans back in his chair. "You should break up with him. He's only interested in you for your money."

Mycroft frowns bitterly. "That's not something that's going to be a problem for much longer. I suppose I can just wait for him to break up with me, if that's the case."

Mycroft glances up to see Sherlock looking disturbed and a little guilty for the first time this evening. "Mummy's not going to let him disown you."

Mycroft shrugs. He's always spent more time trying to please his father, and Sherlock's always been more of Mummy's son. "Mummy's an unknown quantity," he admits.

Sherlock shakes his head. "She's really not. She loves you, loves us both. That's more than you could say for him." He pauses for barely a second before continuing. "Did you know that most of the money we have is from her family, rather than his? It's amazing what you can find out when you dig a little into family history, instead of just memorising bloodlines. The Holmeses have been nearly destitute, by _their_ standards, since the end of World War II."

"What relevance does this have?" Mycroft asks.

"He doesn't own you just because he made you, Mycroft," Sherlock says, softly.

* * *

Their father doesn't disinherit Mycroft, nor does Mycroft lose his government position. If Mycroft's interactions with him are strained where they weren't before, that's more a result of what their father said than anything Sherlock had done.

Mycroft won't ever forgive Sherlock for outing him. He also won't thank him, even if he's pretty sure he should.

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate comments, including constructive criticism.


End file.
